Brenda Dale Knox (March 11, 1957 – September 8, 2016), known professionally as The Lady Chablis, was an American actress, author, and drag performer. Through exposure in the novel Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil and its 1997 film adaptation she became one of the first drag performers to be accepted by a wider audience.[1][2]

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Born Benjamin Edward Knox in North Florida in 1957,[3][4] she had at least one sibling (a sister). Knox grew up during the 1960s and 1970s in Quincy, Florida. Legally her name was changed to "The Lady Chablis" in the 1990s.[4]

The Lady Chablis was featured in the closing segment of the Savannah episode of Bizarre Foods America on The Travel Channel. She joined host Andrew Zimmern at several Savannah restaurants including Elizabeth on 37th. In 2012, she was interviewed in Savannah, Georgia[6] on the local television and internet talk show "MAMA Knows Best Talk Show" season 2 episode 1.[7] On April 19, 2013 Chablis performed for the grand opening of Mama's Cabaret in Lewiston, Maine with "MAMA" Savannah Georgia.

A poster in memoriam of The Lady Chablis on the Jefferson Street wall of Club One. It mentions her catchphrase, which she uses in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil: "Two tears in a bucket, motherfuck it."

The Lady Chablis died from pneumonia at the age of 59 on September 8, 2016.[8][5]

According to Berendt's book, Chablis was a transgender woman; Berendt wrote that he met Chablis as she was returning home from having a hormone injection.[9] In her book Hiding My Candy, Chablis said she had not undergone sex reassignment surgery.[citation needed]